NSAC issues one-year suspension, fine to Nick Diaz

In a hearing that stretched over three hours and two rooms within the Grant Sawyer Office Building in Las Vegas, the Nevada State Athletic Commission unanimously voted today to suspend Nick Diaz for his failed drug test at UFC 143.

Diaz’s suspension runs 12 months from the date of the event, which took place Feb. 4. Additionally, he has been fined $60,000, or 30 percent of his $200,000 show purse.

Diaz, who was present at hearing, must also submit a clean drug test in order to be licensed again in Nevada.

NSAC commissioner Bill Brady suggested the term of suspension as keeping with a previous cases in which a boxer tested positive multiple times for marijuana metabolites. Diaz was suspended and fined by the NSAC in 2007 following a fight with Takanori Gomi at PRIDE 33, which took place at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Diaz lawyer Ross Goodman was unsuccessful in arguing those metabolites were technically not a violation of commission statutes on the use of prohibited substances, as he stated in a pair of legal responses to the NSAC’s initial complaint against the fighter, which was filed Feb. 8.

John Hiatt, a medical expert testifying on Diaz’s behalf, said the amount of metabolites found in Diaz’s system were consistent with an affidavit from the fighter stating he had ceased marijuana use eight days prior to UFC 143.

But Dr. Timothy Trainor, an expert called by the state, said Diaz could have also used the drug as early as 24 hours before the fight, and Hiatt admitted he was surprised that Diaz’s level wasn’t higher given his frequency of use.

Diaz testified to using the drug before training, which was later seized upon by commissioners as evidence of possible performance enhancement. The fighter said he only apologized to the commission following his first suspension because “didn’t want to be made an example of” and continued using marijuana immediately afterward.

“So the mistake you made is not stopping soon enough?” NSAC chairman Raymond “Skip” Avansino asked the fighter about his most recent suspension.

“Perhaps,” Diaz answered.

Despite receiving a doctor’s recommendation allowing the use of medical marijuana as treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Diaz said he didn’t think he had a serious medical condition.

Commissioners, however, were unconvinced that the fighter was being transparent when he left blank questions about medical conditions and prescription drug use on a pre-fight medical questionnaire for UFC 143. The state produced a similar questionnaire from a January 2011 fight in California in which Diaz noted “THC” as a medication or drug he took within 30 days of the fight.

Goodman argued the fighter was answering the questions to the best of his ability and that the diagnosis was the responsibility of the doctor who issued him a recommendation for medical marijuana.

NSAC commissioner Pat Lundvall noted that Diaz’s recommendation was dated several weeks after UFC 143 and drew an admission from Goodman that the fighter wasn’t a valid medical marijuana patient in both California and Nevada, as previously stated.

Diaz, meanwhile, said he frequently got marijuana from friends with recommendations and said he’d been using since his early teens.

During testimony before the commission, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer stated that Diaz’s post-fight drug test at UFC 137, which took place this past October in Las Vegas, came back negative, though it was ruled to be “diluted” or “abnormal.” He also noted that Diaz appeared to evade a post-fight test at UFC 143 and tested several hours late – and only under the threat of not receiving his purse.

Goodman countered that Diaz may have been suffering from severe dehydration following the recent fight, but Hiatt could not say for certain how stricken the fighter was.

At the start of deliberations on the suspension, Lundvall said there were too many discrepancies to resolve between Diaz’s testimony and the evidence before the commission and recommended a yearlong suspension. Her sentiments were quickly echoed by the remaining commissioners, and a vote to suspend and fine Diaz was passed in short order.